Childhood Obesity And Physical Education Essay

The Importance of Physical Education Essay

1194 Words5 Pages

With more technology to feel the gap of physical labor for humans and poor nutrition, obesity is rising and people are not living up to their potential. Children have been spending more time indoors with a screen in their face and a controller in their hand. Lack of physical activity not only causes obesity, but lack of brain power and achievement. Children and their families need to be taught the proper ways of how to be healthy in physical education classes to maintain their health across their life span. By incorporating in more lifelong knowledge about health into our physical education systems, obesity rates will drop and students will do much better in school. Physical education (PE) has been around since Greek times, when health,…show more content…

(Teague) A main issue with physical education is that your grade is determined by your performance (Taylor). By hold all children to the same standard, fair judgment of right and wrong is flawed. A child with a less active history than another will not be able to achieve the same goals. A child with a completely different biological design than another will also not be able to compete at the same level as another. Rather than judging people by their performance, effort and progress should be reported accurately. By “accurately”, I mean using technology, such as heart rate monitors and such to measure how effort and progress each student has. In Illinois, Naperville Central High School freshman were given an opportunity to be a part of the new physical education experiment. This experiment instructed students to come into school an hour earlier and run a mile as fast as they can, while keeping their average heart rate above 185. The results showed heightened awareness and high literacy rates. Exercise has shown to be able to prepare the brain for learning (Vigorous…). Another major problem in physical education is that it is underappreciated. Ninety-four percent of schools in the United States have cut back their PE programs, leaving a measly six percent offering good fitness education to children. Schools felt the need to draw back on physical education to increase the

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Obesity In Children - With A Free Essay Review

Obesity in children is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of greater than thirty. Children obesity is a health problem in the United States and other countries thats steadily increasing, its one of our greatest health problems. There are about fifteen percent of adolescents and children obese in the United States. The number of obesity children will continue to increase only if parents allow it to but if parents step up and get their children better eating habits then it should decrease. ("Overweight and Obesity").

Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and in other developed countries. One in five children in America is overweight, nearly one-third of children in America are obese. (Fredericks). The number of obese children is increasing because the abundant amount of food and physical activity being optional among children. One third of American children are obese and this number will increase because we have a plentiful amount of food in the United States. The number of obese children will also increase because parents are not making children get the amount of physical activity they should be getting.

When a child is obese he/she is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height. The prevalence of obesity increases with age among both males and females. Children are considered being obese when their body weight is at least twenty percent higher than a child of that height. (Burress). Boys are considered obese when their body fat is above twenty-five percent and girls are considered obese when their body fat is above thirty-two percent. Child obesity increases with age, boys and girls have different percentage of body fat levels until they are considered obese.

Obesity has so many affects on children and it can mess their lives up dramatically. Obesity can lead to poor self-esteem and depression; obese children are typically picked on during school so they dont have any friends and they tend to stay to their selves. Some parents tease their child about being obese and that definitely would lower any childs self-esteem. Parents teasing children about weight problems could make that child feel like theyre not loved or like theyre not good enough to be their child. (Ferry). Obese children dont think highly of themselves because they think they are not good enough as others, often because of bullying and teasing.

Obesity can affect the health of children by starting a path to health problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A high level of cholesterol is a cause of obesity. Blood pressure rises as body weight increases, as therefore as a child gains weight their blood pressure will increase and that could lead to a stroke. Type II diabetes can be caused from being overweight. (Berkowitz). High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type II diabetes all are health problems that are cause from being obese. These health problems can have a dramatic affect on children lives, the health conditions associated with being obese as child is not worth it.

There is a great deal of ways to treat obesity in children. If a child is obese express the unconditional love for him or her. Expressing the unconditional love for a child will let the child know they are loved and appreciated no matter what their weight is. When children are obese they know they are overweight because they can look around and notice that their body looks different from some kids. Overweight children need acceptance, support, and encouragement from their parents. Obese children need to be showed they are loved and they have someone they can depend on to be there for them no matter the situation.

An essential way of treating obesity is to be a good role model for children so he or she will know the right things to eat. Parents should put good foods in the kitchen for their children to eat so they are getting the right nutrition. Parents should make sure there is an abundant amount of healthy foods to eat for their child to eat so their child wont have a chance to eat unhealthy foods. (Akers 8) Childrens access to unhealthy foods should be controlled by parents so that their child wont be getting more calories than they are going to burn. Parents are the role models for children because children will eat what they see parent eat, show children that the best choice is to eat healthy.

Obesity in children has preventions methods, a vital prevention are interventions. Interventions are a prevention method that will not only give children and parents a better eating habit but it will also show the child how to maintain a good eating habit. Interventions can give children the right time spent exercising if theyre not getting exercise anywhere else. Parents and children who are ready to take on the goal of stopping obesity will fit perfectly in interventions. Interventions are very helpful; interventions will set children and parents on the right road to a healthy lifestyle.

When children are obese parents should try changing the institutional policies. The environment that children live in can lead them into being obese because they may not have the money to buy healthy foods or even the physical activity they need. The knowledge, skills, and self-efficiency of low-income individuals to adopt healthy nutrition habits should be increased so they will have a better point of view about child obesity. Regulatory actions should be designed to help children and their parents make a better choice about nutrition and physical activity. Institutional policies can be many reasons why children are obese so the more they are changed the more helpful it would be for children living in bad environments.

Children will be more successful at eating healthy and exercising if the entire family adopts healthier eating habits and makes exercise a priority. Parent should buy healthier foods to help the whole family maintain a healthy eating habit. Parents shouldnt buy so much junk food; try to buy healthy snacks for their children. An important part of this is making exercising apart of the daily plan for the whole family. The whole family must have time to exercise; when the family goes grocery shopping they should buy healthier foods and less junk food. Obesity programs are critical to obese children. (Fowler-Brown and Kahwat)

The number of hours children spend watching TV and playing video games each day are major reasons why progressively children are becoming obese every day. (Leona). Today, children spend on average three hours watching TV and playing video games. Watching TV and playing video games increases snacking because all children want to do is sit around and eat while little things. Also, childrens time spent exercising is decreased because they are spending a large amount of their time playing video games and watching TV. The main distractions for children is watching TV and playing video games, when children are doing one of those two things they dont have their mind set on doing anything else but that.

Physical activity plays a very important role in child obesity. Childrens time spent watching TV, playing video games, and sitting at the computer should be restricted. Children should be getting at least sixty minutes of physical activity everyday. Parents should encourage children to enjoy physical activity that involves burning calories and using different muscle groups. (Akers 8) Children need more time of physical activity than time spent watching TV, playing video games, and sitting at the computer because this can help children become less obese and it will help children maintain a healthy body weight.

Children are really not getting the exercise they need to burn off the amount of calories they are consuming. Children are not getting any daily physical education at school so they will know a little about healthy eating habits if they are not getting any education on it at home. Parents should join children for physical activity to make it fun or more meaningful. After-school sports programs would help children get daily exercise but some parents busy work schedule and fears about safety prevent many children from being involved. (Leona). Parents should educate their children about physical activity; teach children the pros and cons of engaging in physical activity.

Children could be becoming obese from genetics and lifestyle habits. Children obesity could be inherited because it tends to run in the family. Obese children usually become obese because they are eating a lot more calories than they are using. If a child have parents, sisters, and brothers that are obese then they are more likely to become obese. Obese can be inherited in children if they have other family members who are obese because they see that everyone else is like that. Parents who are obese may want their child to live that same lifestyle they are accustomed to living. (Ludwig)

Healthy Kids, Healthy Weight is a 12-week outpatient multidisciplinary program which specialists train kids and families how to practice healthier eating and exercise habits. This program is doctor supervised intervention, weight loss and exercise program for kids. The program also helps children lose weight and teaches vulnerable parents to make healthy lifestyle choices. Healthy Kids, healthy Weight is a program that not only helps children lose weight but maintain that healthy eating habit.

One Step Ahead (OSA) Program is a prevention and management program that teaches children and adults how to build up healthy lifestyle habits. One way this program works is by identifying culturally suitable for families to help children eat more healthful. The OSA program created the TLC (Targeting Lifestyle Change) Program. The TLC programs is eight-week long after school program that helps children feel good about themselves, aid the family with making healthful lifestyle goals, and gives support for parents. This program helps children and parents build up healthy lifestyle habits and it will help children enhance their confidence about their selves.

Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) Program is a multidisciplinary clinic that helps with the treating of children who are overweight or obese. This program treats patients with a combination of nutritional counseling and behavioral modification. The Owl program has a primary treatment used called dietary modification which is a low glycemic diet to help control appetite. The secondary treatment used is behavioral modification which helps children cope with the emotional stress caused from being obese and boost their confidence. (Ludwig). The combination of treatment can help the children in numerous ways because they are not only helped in one way but in two ways.

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ESSAY REVIEW

The essay is very disorganized. It presents a list of claims about the nature and causes of the problems of childhood obesity and the treatment options for it in a more or less random fashion. The essay is also very repetitive (repetition is often a consequence of poor organization). So you need to do the following:

1) Develop a logic that will determine the order of the presentation of information in the essay.

2) Write sentences at appropriate points in the essay whose only function is to inform the reader about the logic mentioned in point (1).

Let's say you decide that you want to talk about three things:

a) What are the causes of childhood obesity

b) what are the consequences of childhood obesity

c) what should be done about childhood obesity.

You might then decide to organize your essay into three distinct sections, the first dealing with (a), the second dealing with (b) and the third dealing with (c). Once you've done that, you have an organizational logic. You now need to figure out how you will communicate that logic to your reader. The answer to this question is essay: tell your reader what you are doing. For instance, in your introduction, you might say something like this : "In this essay, I will first examine the cause of childhood obesity, then the consequences of childhood obesity, and finally I will suggest some approaches to dealing with the problem." You can also remind your reader of where you are in the unfolding of your story about obesity at those points where you are transitioning from one part of your essay to another. You can do this by writing transitions. It is important to have transitions between paragraphs, but it is especially important to have them between sections of an essay (although you can make do without them if the sections are formatted and titled as such). For instance, at the end of your section on the consequences of childhood obesity, you could write the following type of transitional sentences. "As we have just seen, the consequences of childhood obesity are potentially severe, so it is important to address the problem. We can address the problem by tackling the causes that we outlined above." Note that in these transitional sentences we've reminded the reader of what we were just doing (talking about consequences), what we did earlier (talked about causes), and what we are about to do (talk about solutions), and we've done it in such a way that the three parts of the essay form a natural whole. Suddenly you've gone from a completely disorganized, desultory essay, to a tightly organized, logically developed one (especially if you have also written transitions between individual paragraphs). Transitional sentences are the essayist's greatest magic trick.